Fox Magazines

Foreword

The following re-worded transcript was published in the final "Fox Magazine" in the winter of 1966, the first publication being in the spring of 1946.

It explains the reason for its publication, its objectives and why it finally came to an end.

The transcript suggested that 84 magazines were issued, but the Society have only 83 copies.

We suspect that in reality that there were only three publications in 1966, with the autumn and winter editions being combined into a single issue.

If we are mistaken on this point and anyone has a copy of a magazine from the autumn of 1966, we would like to hear from you.

The Story of the Fox Magazine

The magazine really began in 1939, the year the Second World War was declared, when the Works Council requested that the Company consider a publication for all its employees and their families.

The paper shortage caused by the war delayed it however, and the magazine began with the Spring 1946 edition, its policy being, "for employees, about employees, the Company and its achievements, and as far as possible, by employees."

In an introductory message by Mr. S. A. Jackson, General Manager at the time, said.

"We hope that it will help to foster and develop a spirit of co-operation and good-fellowship, and encourage interest and enthusiasm in this business of earning a living."

The magazine completed seven volumes with 12 editions in each, making 84 with the last issue.

Over those 20 years circulation had almost exactly doubled from 3,800 to 7,500 copies.

The magazine was not only mailed to all of the Company's 900 retired employees, but also to many who had left the Company for other parts of Britain and the far comers of the world.

It carried with it the Company's image and it's goodwill.

Regular contributors included contributions from nearly every level of employees, from the General Manager to the new recruit who could draw a cartoon.

Local poets too, have given us offerings of beauty, and many will recall Mr. Albert Hirst whose poems of homely wisdom were sought after by readers far from their native valley.

In 1967 the Company, following the line taken by other branches of the Group, starting a weekly newspaper with a view to giving more immediate news to everybody than was possible in a three-monthly publication, allegedly in keeping with the faster speed of decision and progress essential in those days.

This virtually wrote the end of the quarterly as it inevitably absorbed the news on every front at a much faster pace, it is worth noting that Samuel Fox & Co. Ltd. allowed their quarterly and their new weekly to overlap longer than any other division of the Group.

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